No Moon

Summary: Years after an alien race took over the Earth, Anitra leaves her home on Mars to join the military with the hope that they can take back their homeworld. But what she learns could change her opinion.

Chapter 1

All of her life, Anitra had known two things. 1) Going outside of Refugee City was strictly forbidden, and 2) Mars wasn't really her home.

But as she stared out of the round window in her bedroom and into the artificial lights that made up the landscape of Refugee City, she realized that she didn't understand why the red planet wasn't her home. She had lived in the same small two-bedroom apartment with her parents and older brother since she was born, and had grown up looking out over the city and the empty red desert of Mars just outside of the dome that surrounded the city. Her grandparents had told her about Earth, how wonderful and open and vast it was when they lived there, and they had even told her of the invasion.

Fifty years ago, in the year 3000, the red storm of Jupiter disappeared, revealing an alien race. Although some people had been excited, the sudden appearance of a new race in the Milky Way Galaxy had concerned the majority of humanity. The fears were seemingly quelled when the race--calling themselves the Jupitians--wanted to meet with leaders of the human race with the intention of securing diplomatic relations.

This peace, however, was not meant to last.

The moment the Jupitians arrived on Earth, they killed every single world leader and their families, and declared war upon the human race. To show how serious their claim of war was, the Jupitians shot a powerful weapon at Earth's moon, destroying it and causing a terrible climate change on the Earth. The resulting storm caused mass chaos and deaths worldwide before the military realized that fighting back was doing no good for anyone, and made a deal with the Jupitians to relocate a select amount of people to Mars. Part of this agreement required that the evacuated humans never return to Earth, and that the humans remaining on Earth were to become little more than toys for the Jupitians to entertain themselves with when they became bored.

Anitra's grandparents and her then-three month old mother were among the lucky ones to win the lottery to be evacuated to Mars. Thirty years after their resettlement, she was born, and grew up in one of the high-rise apartment building built for the refugees from Earth. And as she grew up looking out of her bedroom window, she saw the development and growth of Refugee City into the metropolis it was today. ("It reminds me of how New York used to look," her grandmother once said to her.)

"Anitra," a male voice came from behind her in a rather irritated tone, "get away from the window and close the curtain. I'm trying to sleep."

Sighing, she backed away from the window and pulled the small black curtain closed in front of it. Although she could see with the room's overhead light on, it was just so plain with the curtain closed.

Anitra faced her bed, across the room from where her older brother, Connor was lying down underneath the covers of his bed. His half of the room had nothing on the walls, revealing the cream color beneath the posters and pictures that decorated Anitra's side. This was due to do the fact that Connor was moving out in three days, across the city to a place that was closer to the mineral mine where he had worked since he turned twenty.

She sighed as she slid underneath the fluffy down comforter laying across her bed. Looking out of the window to the red planet's surface was always her way to calm her nerves, and her nerves needed calming tonight.

Three weeks ago, Anitra had finally graduated from a mandatory higher education school and taken what most simply called the career test. This test determined what job a person was the be given within Refugee City; most were left with mine or road work jobs, while anyone scoring highly could find themselves to be a scientist helping to find a new planet for their race to move to, or those scoring low were left to join the military (aka: The Human Militia). The militia was an undesirable position amongst the first generation of refugees simply for the fact that the soldiers within it worked to find a way to take back the Earth from the Jupitians regardless of the agreement that was made for humans to never return.

Regardless of her score and the coming protest she knew would come from her parents and grandmother, this is the position that she had always wanted. She wanted to help regain the Earth, even though it was considered a lowly position.

Anitra released a long sigh meant to attempt to calm herself as she drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow morning she would know what opportunity she would be giving up to do what she had always dreamed of doing.

Write a Review
Did you enjoy my story? Please let me know what you think by leaving a review! Thanks,
Drake R Todd

Jasmine Chow:
As I read this story, I was reminded some what of Terry Pratchett, especially some descriptions of politics and economics. The sci-fic setting is quite intriguing. Writing style is quite lovely and grew on me slowly. I was also slightly reminded of Mark Twain, especially his book A Connecticut Ya...

Steve Lang:
I thought this story was imaginative, and well thought out. I also think it was an original piece, and not a rehash of previous scifi stories I've read in the past.Thank you for the effort put into this tale, and I look forward to reading more of your work!

PaulSenkel:
If you like Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey, especially The Final Odyssey, then you will probably also enjoy this book. I definitely did.It does, however, address a more adolescent public than the above-mentioned book.I enjoyed the story and finished it in a few days. The overall situation on earth an...

Tiffany Thomson:
This story is not something I would normally pick up and read but I'm so glad I did, I wasn't able to put it down and my husband was yelling at me at 3am to put it down and go to bed (just waited for him to doze back off before picking it back up) I really hope Natalie brings out another book eit...

MavisMcQueen:
"To Live Again" is a well crafted, highly engaging, heart vibrating tale surrounding our favorite Elven King. The author will keep you engrossed until the very end and by that time you will feel so strongly for Clara and the other characters that you will never want it to end...like ever. Thrandu...

MegaRogueLegend666:
I love this story so much. It's impossible to describe my excitement with each new chapter in words. The author has such a good writing style, very good descriptions of the fighting and character descriptions/emotions. the plot is also amazing! This fanfic could be a side anime show or novel ......

Prasino45:
Hi! I happen to see your updated chapter on FF.NET!It happened to be about you coming onto Inkitt with this story! I've been a fan for a while! I'm a scqualphie writer myself. I ship them HARD! Love this story! I'm gonna do a reread as you said you changed some things! Glad we both made the switc...

Roger A. Fauble:
Excellent read, the only thing not to like is that I could only read it at home on my computer. I'm a character reader, I get into the characters, their story, who/what they are. In this story characters are introduced and developed allowing you to really get into them. Next the story is develop...